Kind of Like Khan Academy: Kickstart a Tool for Creative Teens

Do you think that young people, girls particularly, deserve meaningful training in creative and critical thinking? If so, get ready for some high-octane choir-preaching.* School of Doodle is a free interactive program designed to build skills and confidence around creative thinking, and it's targeted towards teenage girls. (No gender or age is barred!) The online curriculum combines entertaining videos and how-to information from talented artists and thinkers, and leads into a call-to-arms where participants can make or do something new.

I admittedly hate the word Doodle. It sounds like a knockoff Cheeto or something your horrible step-grandma's horrible shih tzu did on the carpet. But if you're like me—or the hundreds of people who already pushed the campaign past its first goal—steel yourself because this doodle-filled curriculum seems solid. Get past the overly riot grrled introductory video and slightly overwhelming Kickstarter page and you'll find a goldmine of contributing talent, projects, interactive possibilities and cool takeaways. As they put it: "What's with the word Doodle? Simple, a doodle is the only form of creativity that everyone does, cannot be taught, and has no measure of good or bad." Fair enough.

Among the selling points are the chance to learn from leaders in a bunch of fields in their own words, opportunities to skill-build in a variety of disciplines, and the chance to earn rewards in the form of "Doodle Dollars" by engaging with the community through taking, teaching and sharing. What are Doodle Dollars? A points-based system that lets the earner cash in on their own shared efforts for "Access to Real World Experiences, Mentor Lessons and Tools for Imagination." Specifically, you can buy curriculum-ok'd items in partnering stores, take a live online lesson with an expert like "Sofia Coppola walking you through how to frame a shot!", or visit a local expert on site. To distill: get rewarded for doing creative projects with tools and experiences to help you do more creative projects. I want that.In this Daily Doodle challenge Kate Costello discusses ways of thinking about a color palette, and gives a simple but challenging project goal:

Up for grabs on the Kickstarter is a coloring book with work by an impressive list of impressive people. Contributors to the "original Doodles" include the talents on this list:

If you know even three of those names you'll get why this thing is attractive. And you should look up anybody you aren't familiar with, because they're all crucial badasses that you deserve to know about. Check out the Kickstarter and website for more specifics and ridiculous lists of inspiring people you'd give a gold-capped tooth to hang out with.

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